What happened

Chip giant NVIDIA (NVDA 3.65%) outperformed a strong market last month as the stock rose 21% compared to a 7% increase in the S&P 500, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The rally pushed the stock back above the broader market in 2019, up 22% so far.

An engineer testing a chip.

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

NVIDIA announced a new partnership that could make it a bigger player in the emerging self-driving automobile industry, and investors celebrated that news. But the stock likely got more of a boost from two more fundamental factors. June brought a head-turning rebound in the cryptocurrency market, for one, which has supported sales for some of NVIDIA's high-performance chips. And investor sentiment improved around trade with China, which had weighed on NVIDIA's shares in recent months.

Now what

NVIDIA recently paused its practice of issuing annual sales guidance given the unpredictable demand shifts currently impacting many of its key markets. Thus, investors will have to wait until its fiscal second-quarter announcement in mid-August to find out whether sales trends have improved for its datacenter, gaming, and automotive niches following a brutal 31% revenue decline in the fiscal first quarter.